Many sources have been consulted in our quest to create a friendly and consistent editorial style. While it's not mandatory that you follow this guide when producing your own material, it will help you to communicate clearly and consistently by following reader-friendly writing and design guidelines.

Use of the UFV name

The institution is generally referred to as the University of the Fraser Valley, but the "the" is not capitalized. When the name is being used as an adjective, as in "University of the Fraser Valley programs", the "the" is dropped.

Examples I work at the University of the Fraser Valley. It is a University of the Fraser Valley program.

UFV is the most common shortened version of the name. There is no need to put "the" in front of UFV (unless the "the" refers to a noun that UFV is modifying as an adjective) or to put periods in between the letters.

Examples I teach at UFV. Go see a UFV counsellor. Refer to the UFV calendar.

"University" is helpful as a term when referring to a formal matter.

Examples The University Senate. It is a university policy.

The word "university" should be capitalized when referring to the institution as a legal body, but not when being used as a general adjective.

ExamplesI teach at the university. The university region. See a university counsellor.

Capitalization

Although it is tempting to capitalize titles, departments, programs, degrees, committees, and documents, excessive capitalization serves to de-emphasize everything equally and makes a sentence harder to read, especially in a publication with narrow columns.

Example of excessive capitalizationThe Kinesiology and Physical Education Department Head and the Fashion Design Program Head made a joint presentation to the Chair of the Program Advisory Committee about a new Athletic Apparel Design Diploma Program.

Example of less daunting, more reader-friendly capitalization The Kinesiology and Physical Education department head and the Fashion Design program head made a joint presentation to the chair of the Program Advisory committee about a new Athletic Apparel Design diploma program.

We capitalize titles of the President, Board Chair, and all Deans when they precede a name and are not modified by an adjective.

Examples Everyone, including President Skip Bassford, went to the UFV barbecue.

UFV president Skip Bassford was unable to attend the meeting, as he was at the barbecue. ("President" is modified by UFV, and thus it is not capitalized).

The president of UFV will speak at the barbecue. (The title is not preceding a name so it is not capitalized.)

Beyond that, our practice is to capitalize the components of a title, department, program or committee that distinguish it from other titles, departments, programs, or committees. For example, we capitalize the name of a program, but not the word "program" itself:

Examples

the Chilliwack campus the Bachelor of Arts in Child and Youth Care degree the Business Administration degree program the Practical Nurse certificate program the Accounting certificate program Visual Arts program head the Applied Business Technology department the Development office the Web committee the Learning Environment subcommittee

We capitalize the name of an academic discipline when referring to a department or a course number (the History department, History 101) but not when referring to the subject generally (she is minoring in history; you must take one history course).

Note: This informal, reader-friendly approach to capitalization prevails in media such as newsletters and newspapers. In more formal contexts, such as letters, there is a greater tendency to capitalize titles and departments.

Spelling

We use English spelling on "our" and "re" words (labour, honour, theatre, centre), but American spelling on other words such as "recognize" and "program".

We use the spelling "practise" and "license" when using these words as verbs, and "practice" and licence" when using them as nouns.

Hyphens We put hyphens between words forming a compound adjective before the noun modified in order to minimize ambiguity.

Examples It is a third-year course.

There is no need to use a hyphen when the first word of a compound is an adverb, as the adverb's only role is to qualify the word next to it, and thus there is no ambiguity .

ExamplesIt is a poorly placed ad, not a poorly-placed ad.

We do not use hyphens for words with prefixes unless better clarity is achieved by doing so.

Examplessubcommittee, but re-enrol, post-secondary

Compound words and terms A compound word or term is a combination of two or more words that have evolved into one through frequent use together. The evolution in the English language tends to be from two separate words (web site), to two words joined by hyphens (web-site), to one compound word (website). We generally help this process of evolution by adopting compound phrases early on for the sake of readability (less spaces for the reader to stumble over). However, in some cases, we retain the hyphen for greater clarity:

Periods We follow a period ending a sentence with one space, not two. This is a longstanding standard practice for professional typographers.

Quotation marks When placing quotation marks around a word or words for emphasis, we generally place the punctuation outside the quotation marks, unless the punctuation mark forms part of the quotation.

ExamplesStudent Gwen Coates wrote a play that explores the notion of "female speak" and "male speak".

We use single quotation marks to emphasize a word/words within a quote.

Note: When using single or double quotes, the first in the set should always consist of "sixes" and the second of "nines". There has been a plague of "backward" quotation marks in recent years due to typographically unfriendly wordprocessing programs, such as Word. "Curly" (sixes and nines) quotation marks always look better than "straight" ones, although they are difficult (perhaps impossible) to achieve in HTML.

Apostrophes Apostrophes are used to indicate that something is missing:

Example'06, wine 'n' cheese, the '90s

There is a tendency to use a backward apostrophe in these cases (`96). This is incorrect, although hard to avoid in Word, which automatically turns an apostrophe into a "six" of "left" quotation mark if it is the first symbol typed in a word. To correct this, delete the backward apostrophe, then go to the "insert" menu in Word. Choose 'symbol', then 'special character', then 'single closing quote'.

Slashes

Example Activities/Athletics will be fundraising on campus. There should be no space between the words and the slash.

The backslash (\) is used only to divide directories on your computer.

Example Data\wpfiles\memos\notes

Numbers, dates, and times

We spell out numbers from one to nine, and use numerals from 10 onwards, except for millions, and when the number begins a sentence.

ExampleMore than 26 students enrolled in the course; nine failed. There are 25 million Canadians, and 60,000 people in Chilliwack. Exceptions are for decimal point numbers, time, ages, and page numbers.

ExampleA 2.1% increase, 1:30 p.m., ages 7 and 8, continued on page 3

We don't use "th" or other endings on dates:

ExampleYou are invited to forums on March 23, April 22, and May 29.

Using zeroes when referring to time and money is redundant:

Example 8:30 am to 7 pm, (not 7:00 pm) $15 (not $15.00)

Italics and bolding

We use italics for the names of books, magazines, plays, courses, conferences, and reports when referred to in a body of type:

Examples The Glorious 12th, The Piano Man's Daughter, Training for What?, Women in the Valley

We also use italics, or sometimes bolding, or both, to emphasize a word or phrase in a body of copy. Underlining was used in the days of typewriters in instances where a professional typesetter would use italics. Now that we all have access to italics, the need for underlining, which can look tacky when the letters hang down over the line, is eliminated.

Names of people

We use the full name and sometimes a title on first reference in formal stories, and last name only on all other references. In informal stories, we sometimes used first-name reference.

Examples Facilities director Craig Toews made a presentation to the UFV Board. Toews talked about the Safer Campuses initiative.

Geography professor Dave Gibson retired. Dave had worked for UFV for more than two decades.

Typesetting tips

Capitalization Our general practice for headlines and headings in newsletters and brochures is to capitalize only the first letter and any proper names

Example UFV to host student job program

Capitalizing the first letter of all words makes a headline harder to read:

Example UFV To Host Student Job Program

Capitalizing all letters in a headline or body copy is the equivalent of shouting at the reader and should be done sparingly (although it is sometimes useful as a way of differentiating between heads and subheads).

Example UFV TO HOST SUMMER JOB PROGRAM!

Justification The most reader-friendly type of justification is left-justified, or "ragged right". (This guide is set in this style.) Full justification rarely works well, especially in publications with wide columns, as large, poorly spaced gaps tend to result, which diminishes readability.

Centering copy occasionally for visual relief in ads or publications can work well.

Fonts Generally, it's best to use a "serif" font such as Times or Century Schoolbook when you're presenting a lot of densely packed type, in a newsletter story, for instance. "Serifs" are the dangling things on letters in this type of font, and they help the reader to read more quickly. "Serif" fonts also work well in headings.

"Sans serif" fonts, such as Arial or Verdana, work best in headings, ads, and other places where there is a minimal amount of type. They don't work well when the reader has a lot of type to plow through, although the page may look cleaner. (Of course, when working in HTML on projects that will be viewed through browsers on the World Wide Web, it's the reader, not the designer, who decides in which font to view the material — a maddening blow to typographers everywhere!)